1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a control unit for controlling the movements of an animated character of a game software, for example, on a display and to a system utilizing such control unit. More particularly, it relates to a control unit and a system which enable the player to acquire enhanced virtual reality in the game.
2. Description of Related Art
A conventional game machine utilizing a TV set as a display screen incorporates a main unit connectable to the TV set with a connection cable, and a control unit connected to the main unit with a connection cable for controlling the movements of a character displayed on the display screen.
The main unit includes a disk drive for retrieving a program from a recording medium such as an optical disk and a graphic processor for displaying a character on the display along with a background picture in accordance with the program.
The control unit is provided on the surface thereof with a multiplicity of control buttons. The player of the game may operate these control buttons to enter instructions in order to control the movements of the character on the screen in the direction as he wishes.
Such a control unit as described above is usually implemented as a hand-held unit operable by fingers. The hand-held unit is provided on one side thereof with a circular or a cross shaped direction controller having a set of direction buttons for controlling the direction of the movement of the character, and on the other side thereof a function controller having a multiplicity of function buttons for setting and executing functions allowable for the character. The circular or cross shaped direction controller has four switches associated with the direction buttons, which are angularly spaced apart at right angles about their common center and may be selectively turned on and/or off by the direction button pushed by the player, so that the character is digitally moved in the corresponding direction on the screen. The function controller has a multiplicity of switches associated with the function buttons for setting up functions which the character can perform on the screen. The function controller is also used to execute the functions thus set up for the character.
In the above-described conventional control unit, although the player visually perceives the motions of the character on the display and hears sounds from the speakers of the system, he runs the game only by operating a multiplicity of control buttons on the controller with fingers. Therefore, the game is unidirectional in that the game proceeds based only on the information given by the player to the control unit, but that no feedback is given from the control unit to the player.